Microsoft Introduces 'Zo', Its Newest Chatbot

2016 saw Microsoft introduce its latest software innovation: an artificial intelligence chatbot nicknamed "Tay". As an AI, Tay performed rather well - it was constantly "learning" through its conversations with users and was beginning to speak more and more human. Unfortunately, it started to speak just a little bit too human-like. It had also picked up racism and lewdness from the people it spoke to. Naturally, it had to be taken down as Microsoft wanted to avoid any further controversy.

Microsoft is quick to learn from its mistakes however. The company immediately issued a statement saying how their teams are working on improving their AI technology to avoid such a disaster in the future. After a year of waiting, they are finally ready to unveil Zo, their next best chatbot. The tech giant company is still pretty quiet about this and the existence of the software was discovered only on Twitter.

Microsoft is taking it particularly slow with this new incarnation of interactive ariticial intelligence. Instead of making it readily available to the general public, Zo is only available on Kik at the moment. Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook will have to wait until Microsoft officialy launches Zo. Not at all surprising, considering what happened with Tay earlier this year.

Zo is a bit more polite than its immediate predecessor, and much more resembles Microsoft's Chinese variation of AI chatbot software, Xiaoice. The upcoming AI is a master of normal conversations and actively tries to avoid touchy subjects (such as politics) to avoid another controversy. From early snapshots of conversations with Zo, one can see how intuitive and natural the chatbot carries chat conversations. It actively acknowledges Window Phone usage and its Chinese "relative" Xiaoice.

Microsoft is still yet to officially announce and release the friendly AI, but early access trials can be done on Kik.